THE PRAIRIEFORM IRRIGATION-FREE LANDSCAPE
As the frequency of drought increases, we have become ever more tethered to our hoses and irrigation systems. All of this amounts to increases in time and money spent on maintaining a landscape. To meet this trend head-on and to offer up a visually compelling and effective solution, PRAIRIEFORM has launched a series of irrigation-free pilot landscapes that maintain the tidiness of a wildlife-friendly front-yard landscape but that do not require supplemental irrigation during periods of drought. The landscapes use visually stunning but highly drought-tolerant plants, an innovative planting technique, and a drought training for the newly planted plants. They take cues from the work of both Olivier Filippi and Beth Chatto but are very much a uniquely Minnesotan take on the theme. Our first pilot landscape we have installed in the Longfellow Neighborhood, with generous funding from the Mississippi Watershed Management Organization, and the Longfellow Community Council. Follow us on Twitter, or like us on Facebook, to stay up to date on and participate in the project. To look at the before/after gallery of the project, click here.